Lessons from a Recovering Doormat

Preparing for the New Year

How do you get ready for the New Year? Do you look forward to it coming as a way to start fresh on your dreams and goals? Is that when the Fat Fairy will wave her magic wand and your extra pounds will roll off or your dream job will suddenly call you or you’ll bump into the romantic partner of your dreams or a gazillion other wishes? It’s common for people to wait for the new year to get all their desires met. And it’s also common to be disappointed when none of it materializes.

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Sorry to burst your bubbles but there’s no extra stuff going on as the calendar changes years. But, it can be a time to get what you want, if you prepare properly.

• If you want to lose weight in the new year, create an eating and exercise plan NOW. Don’t pig out during the holidays, deluding yourself you’ll take the extra weight off as 2011 strikes. It doesn’t work that way. Join a group like Weight Watchers or a support group to help you do it. Create a plan–IN WRITING–for how you intend to change your eating habits. Join a gym and/or hire a personal trainer to strengthen your commitment. And, take a few small steps NOW by doing a little exercise and limiting at least something in your diet.

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• If you want a job you’d enjoy, start researching NOW! The new year brings a glut of people who decide to change jobs. People don’t send as many resumes during the holidays. Get yours in first! Tell everyone you know you want a job. Network like crazy. You’ll have a much better chance to have a foot in the door to a job you’d like in 2011 if you do some of the work now to prepare yourself.

• If you want to meet a healthy romantic partner, work on making yourself healthy and happy. Being desperate for someone is obvious and makes people run. When you have a life you enjoy and can take care of your own needs, you become more attractive. So begin now to make yourself the kind of person that would make someone feel lucky to have you so you enter the New Year as more of a magnet for someone special.

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For whatever you want, prepare yourself as much as possible. Don’t put it off till after January 1st.

I can almost guarantee you won’t be more ready to do it then than you are right now. Enter the New Year in a place of moving forward, instead of waiting for the magic to motivate you, because it won’t. Every year my personal trainer tells me how many new members the gym got the first week of January and marvels at how empty it is. Joining a gym won’t lose the pounds. Going will.

Make a list of what you want for 2011. Then write down steps you can take to achieve them.

The best way to enter the New Year is to have some of the work done that will get you closer to your goals. Waiting till after the calendar changes is a cop out–an excuse to put off doing what’s necessary. Year after year people proclaim their lofty ambitions for the New Year only to end the year with those goals not realized. If you’re really serious about what you think you want, NOW is the time to begin to make it happen!

Daylle,
There’s so many ideas in this post that I started doing over the past several years.
Mainly, I DO NOT make New Year’s resolutions. Because, I now make them during the year at anytime. And for whatever I need them to be for. I call them ‘lifestyle changes’.
It works well for me. As I tend to stick with them because they are changes that I am actively making, not resolutions that I ‘must’ keep. (Freud would probably have a field day with me…grin).
What I need to work on is actually writing down my goals. I don’t do that because then they would be actual goals & not just ideas in my head.
Thanks for all the great ideas, reminders & encouragement.
Kathy

Daylle Deanna Schwartz

You’re so right about the benefits of making lifestyle changes Kathy. So much better.

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About Lessons from a Recovering Doormat

Welcome to my self-empowerment blog. I used to be a wimp and never got taken seriously. When I became one of the first women to start a record label, I learned to navigate the male dominated music industry and earned respect, without raising my voice or getting overtly tough. I transferred those skills into all areas of life and now get what I want from most people. I'll share those lessons here by talking about my observations of situations and habits that hold both men and women back from being as empowered as possible. I'll also give tips for more effective communication, handling yourself with more confidence, and in general, how to come across as more serious--whether it's at work, dealing with an annoying phone company, your mother, a romantic partner and anyone else you want to feel more in control with. Everybody can use more tools for taking control of their lives, like in my latest book, Nice Girls Can Finish First.